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Best Use Cases of Sanity

Introduction

Sanity CMS has established itself as a leading player in the headless CMS market, boasting over 20% market share and earning trust from businesses around the world. Known for its flexibility, scalability, and developer-first approach, Sanity is more than a content management system. Sanity best use cases can range from retail websites to knowledge repositories for medical companies. It’s a composable content cloud designed to empower both technical and non-technical teams. The unique combination of strong APIs, customizable workflows, and an advanced visual editor makes it perfect for projects requiring adaptability and performance.

Sanity best use cases - Market Share
Source: Web Tech Survey

At Pagepro, we’ve had the privilege of working on a wide range of projects utilizing Sanity. From enterprise websites and media platforms to large-scale applications with custom workflows, we’ve seen firsthand how Sanity transforms content management processes. Drawing from our experience, we chose the scenarios where Sanity truly shines and delivers great value.

This article will explore Sanity best use cases, detailing the specific features and advantages that make it the right fit for many use cases, like a high-traffic website, a complex media platform, or an innovative e-commerce project. We’ll help you understand why it’s one of the most powerful tools in the content management system CMS space and how it can elevate your project to the next level.

If you’d prefer watching over reading, we have a video prepared for you:

Sanity Best Use Cases TLDR

  • Enterprise websites
  • Media and publishing platforms
  • Large Applications with custom workflows

The Flexibility of Sanity: More Than a Headless CMS

Sanity is a content operating system that adapts to your business requirements. What sets it apart from other CMSes is its ability to fit into your workflows – it doesn’t force you into rigid templates, plugins, or pre-defined structures.

At its core is a Content Sanity Studio, based on the JavaScript powered React. It’s fully customizable to meet the needs of developers and content teams alike. Unlike many CMSs, which focus only on content management, Sanity prioritizes the developer experience, providing exposed APIs that allow you to integrate with any system or tool. You’re not limited by what’s included out of the box but can build exactly what you need.

Sanity Content Operating System
Source: Sanity

Sanity is a modern headless CMS that handles high-traffic environments smoothly, so even the most demanding enterprise applications can perform reliably. Additionally, it’s flexible enough to support a wide array of uses, from powering global enterprise websites to serving as a backend for mobile applications.

Interested in using Sanity in your project?

Top 3 Use Cases for Sanity 

Use Case 1: Use Sanity for Enterprise Websites at Scale

One of the best uses for Sanity is managing content for enterprise websites. Let’s look at the example of our latest project – a global corporation operating across multiple regions with complex content requirements chose Sanity for their website. By integrating with Azure Active Directory for SSO, Sanity ensured enterprise-grade security and simplified user management. Even under heavy traffic, Sanity’s scalable APIs delivered consistent performance.

What’s more, the site housed multilingual content, region-specific pages, blogs, landing pages, and resource hubs. Each region’s team needed tailored access to manage their localized content securely. Sanity’s multi-language support allowed all this content to reside in a single dataset, saving on costs and simplifying data management. 

Why Sanity Is the Best Choice for Enterprise Websites

  • Multi-Language and Localization Support: Manage multiple languages and regions in a single dataset to reduce costs.
  • SSO Integration for Security: Integrate with enterprise-grade authentication systems like Azure Active Directory for secure and efficient user management.
  • Granular Roles and Permissions: Provide access for regional teams and specific content management tasks.
  • High Performance at Scale: Handle high-traffic demands without compromising site speed or reliability.
  • Flexible Content Lake: Adapt to the complex data structures required by global enterprises.
  • Real-Time Collaboration: Allow multiple teams to collaborate on content at the same time.
  • Enhanced Preview Capabilities: Provide real-time previews for content teams to ensure high-quality outputs before publishing.
  • Cost Efficiency: Avoid additional charges for extra datasets, enabling efficient scaling for large websites.

Use Case 2: Media and Publishing Platforms

This platform we’ve worked on hosted over 40,000 structured medical content pieces with intricate relationships and compliance needs. While Sanity can handle such complexity, in this project it was chosen for its adaptability.

The client’s legal obligations required a longer content history than the default 90 days. Using Sanity’s exposed APIs, we customized history retention to meet compliance standards. Other functionalities, like real-time collaboration, allowed multiple editors to work simultaneously, and custom workflows allowed every piece of content to pass through proper approval channels

Why Sanity Is the Best Choice for Media and Publishing

  • Scalability for High-Volume Content: Manage thousands of structured content pieces with complex relationships and dependencies.
  • Custom History Retention: Extend version history to meet regulatory and compliance requirements.
  • Real-Time Collaboration: Enable simultaneous editing by multiple users.
  • Content Relationships: Model intricate relationships between content types.
  • Integration Capabilities: Use APIs to connect with analytics tools, external platforms, or legacy systems.
  • Snapshot Generation: Provide visual documentation of content states for audit or archival purposes.
Sanity Content Collaboration
Source: Sanity

Use Case 3: Custom Workflows for Large Applications

In another project, we implemented a workflow where content creation and verification were managed through custom tools. Integrating AWS Cognito with Sanity allowed us to build a user-friendly admin panel, streamlining the verification process without exposing sensitive AWS settings to end-users.

Another example of customization was the use of AI-powered translation. As soon as a document was published, translations for multiple languages were generated automatically. These bespoke solutions highlight how Sanity supports innovation without the overhead of building a custom CMS from scratch.

Why Sanity Is the Best Choice for Large Applications

  • Exposed API for Customization: Build tailored workflows and integrations to match unique business requirements.
  • AI-Powered Features: Automate processes like translations and content repurposing for efficiency.
  • User-Friendly Custom Panels: Simplify complex workflows with bespoke admin interfaces.
  • Content Repurposing: Utilize the same content across multiple platforms, including web, mobile, and more.
  • Third-Party Integrations: Connect with external tools like AWS, analytics platforms, and CRMs.
  • Rapid Development: Leverage Sanity’s tools to create solutions faster than traditional custom CMS builds.

Other Use Cases for Sanity CMS

Marketing Websites

Sanity’s updated Studio V3 makes it a strong contender for marketing websites. The improved visual editing experience rivals competitors like Storyblok, letting content creators build visually rich landing pages with reusable content blocks. It’s an increasingly popular choice for businesses focused on creating dynamic and engaging marketing experiences.

Why Sanity Is the Best Choice for Marketing Websites

  • Block-Based Content Editing: Empower content teams to create and reuse predefined blocks for efficiency and consistency.
  • Enhanced Visual Editor: Offer previews for a better content creation experience.
  • Customizable Studio: Adapt the interface to meet specific branding and workflow needs.
  • Collaboration-Friendly: Streamline marketing workflows with real-time collaboration and role-based access control.
  • Integration-Ready: Connect with CRM, analytics, and marketing automation tools.

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E-Commerce Platforms with Sanity as Headless CMS

Online stores will benefit a lot from Sanity’s integration with Shopify and other e-commerce tools. It adds value to e-commerce platforms by improving product information management and supporting complex relationships between products.

Why Sanity Is the Best Choice for E-Commerce

  • Product Information Management (PIM): Centralize product metadata for consistency across channels.
  • Shopify Integration: Improve workflows for product descriptions, categories, and relationships.
  • Scalable API: Handle high-traffic e-commerce demands with no effort.
  • Customizable Data Models: Adapt product catalogs to unique business needs.
  • Seamless Multi-Channel Support: Use the same product data for web, mobile, and other channels.
Sanity for e-commerce
Source: Sanity

Learning Platforms

When it comes to managing educational content, Sanity’s content structuring capabilities make it the ideal choice. It provides the flexibility educational platforms need to implement functions like tracking user progress and delivering multimedia learning materials.

Why Sanity Is the Best Choice for Learning Platforms

  • Structured Content Management: Organize lessons, chapters, and quizzes with ease.
  • Progress Tracking: Store user progress data to personalize learning experiences.
  • Scalability: Handle large volumes of content and users
  • API-Driven Delivery: Integrate with learning management systems (LMS) and mobile apps.

Mobile App Backends

The ability to handle data communications with apps combined with API focus and customizability is a huge advantage for devs working with Sanity, making it a good option for a mobile application backend.

Why Sanity Is the Best Choice for Mobile App Backends

  • Fast Setup: Quickly configure backends for mobile apps.
  • Scalable API: Ensure consistent performance for high-traffic applications.
  • Customizable Workflows: Tailor data structures and workflows to app-specific requirements.
  • Multi-Platform Compatibility: Share data across web, iOS, and Android apps.
Sanity Content
Source: Sanity

Final Thoughts

Choosing a CMS is a strategic decision, especially for technical leaders managing complex projects or scaling businesses. Sanity’s combination of flexibility, strong APIs, and intuitive user experience makes it great for a number of projects, ranging from enterprise websites to e-commerce platforms and custom applications. In our years of work, we’ve seen Sanity’s impact on content management. It enables frontend teams to work smarter and faster.

If you’re considering Sanity for your next project, let’s have a conversation to determine if it’s the right fit for your needs.

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Jakub Dakowicz

Jakub, the Chief Technology Officer at Pagepro, stands as a pillar of technical expertise and leadership within the company. With an impressive tenure of nearly nine years at Pagepro, and over five years leading the development team, he has been a key figure in shaping the company's technological advancements and strategies.

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